Always a Bigger Fish
by StarWarrior72
Summary: It seems to me that Vader's way of looking at Luke tends to be something like "I can hurt my kid all I like, but if you so much as look at him funny, I'll tear you to pieces." This is a little story about how it could have happened if a non-intelligent creature had tried to hurt Luke near his father.


Their duel had carried them far from the rest of the battle. So far, in fact, that Luke could no longer hear the sounds of blasterfire. He didn't know how it always happened, but again Vader was driving him back, and he was simply struggling to avoid being pushed any farther. He wasn't exactly succeeding.

As Vader took a particularly aggressive swing at his head, he ducked and rolled around behind his father. Vader's lightsaber plummeted into the tree behind him instead. Rolling back to his feet, Luke held up his lightsaber again, only to discover that Vader had very fast recovery on such things, and was already swinging at him again. He was barely able to brace his arm in time, and the blade still swung uncomfortably close to his face. He quickly grabbed his lightsaber's hilt with both hands, and attempted to take the offensive, but in an instant, Vader's blade was dancing nearer to his face again. He quickly returned to the defensive.

Vader pushed him back further, onto the edge of what looked like an _extremely_ deep lake. A sudden noise startled him, and he glanced up involuntarily. Above him, the Rebel's ships were flying away, and he felt a stab of panic. This was not, by any means, the first time he'd been left behind when they retreated, but it _was_ the first time he'd ever been left battling Vader alone. They must not have noticed when Vader had attacked him, he thought, although he didn't know how they could possibly have missed it.

Taking advantage of Luke's distraction, Vader took another swing at his son's torso, and Luke threw himself back and, horrors, into the water. He felt himself falling, deep, deeper into the water. He grabbed a crag in the rock face that must have been the shore, and felt his body starting to try to float back up. He clung to the rock, unsure that he wanted to return to his duel with Vader winded, dripping, and weighed down by the water in his clothes.

Of course, there was the little problem that, down here, he couldn't breathe. He forced himself to look up at where he knew Vader was standing, and wondered if maybe the Sith would assume that Luke had been trapped by something, and would simply come back later for his body. _Not much chance of that._

Suddenly, something had a grasp on his leg, and he found himself torn from his hold on the rock. Whatever had him was swimming away from shore at an alarming rate, and as water rushed into his nose and ears, Luke was suddenly very aware of how badly he needed to breathe. He was suffocating! Water was swirling around him, trying to get into his lungs, his father stood on the shore watching, and his friends had left him behind! He struggled against the grasp of the beast that was holding him, but it was hopeless. It must have been at least ten times his size, and _it_ knew how to _swim_.

As he struggled, he forced himself not to try to breathe. He was terrified. He'd never been very good with water, which was only fair considering his homeworld, but he didn't like the thought that water alone could kill him. Well, water and its inhabitants.

He threw his consciousness outwards from his body, trying to find Vader's presence. Surely his father was worried about the swirling water monster dragging away his son, wasn't he? But Vader's presence was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he_ had_ decided to just come back for Luke's body later.

Luke took a gasping breath through his tears, and his panic increased as his lungs started to fill with water.

_Father!_ he found himself crying silently, _Father, where are you?_

As if in answer to his question, the head of his captor suddenly jerked upwards from the neck, and Luke was being dragged up instead. He couldn't seem to close his mouth, frightened and desperate enough for air that his body was still trying to breathe the water. As the now-obviously-dead creature's head and mouth were pulled above water, Luke coughed weakly.

The creature's jaws were pried away from his leg, and for a terrifying moment he plummeted back towards the water. Just before he would have landed, though, he was caught again, and drawn towards shore. Still trying to cough out the inhaled water, he rubbed his eyes, and looked towards his saviour.

Vader stood on the bank, holding one arm up, and clearly using the Force to bring his son closer to him.

Despite his terror, Luke smiled.

As he neared the few inches of rim where the water met the shore he slowed, and Vader caught him under the arms, pulling him out, resting him on the grass. Luke's legs twitched up towards his chest as he coughed some more water onto the ground.

"Did you breathe water?" Vader asked.

Luke nodded slightly, coughing again, and was dragged onto Vader's shoulder.

"Foolish boy," Vader said, and he began pressing against Luke's back, forcing him to continue coughing up water, although it was starting to hurt. When the last painful mouthful had dribbled down the back of Vader's cape, he set Luke back on the grass, and father and son stared at one another for a moment before Luke managed speech.

"Thanks," Luke said, "That," he gestured towards the water, "Was a big fish."

Vader shook his head slowly, disbelievingly, and Luke could feel a smile, "It's a miracle you've survived this long."

Luke returned his father's smile, "I know."

"Of course," Vader said, and Luke could sense the smile leaving, "The fish would not have been a danger had I not pushed you."

"Yeah," Luke said playfully, "Similarly, if I had never been born, I wouldn't have been in danger."

The smile returned, and Luke leaned forward to hug his father, "Seriously, thanks for saving me."

Vader freed himself of his son's arms and stood, "Let me use your lightsaber, I'll cut you a crutch."

"A crutch?" Luke asked, confused.

"After having that monster chewing on your leg, I imagine you don't want to put weight on it."

"Oh," Luke said, looking down at his leg, which was bleeding and somewhat twisted, "Yeah. Right. What about your lightsaber? Where is it?"

"I'd rather not hear that lecture from you too," Vader said, using the Force to take Luke's saber from his belt, where Luke had clipped it in order to have both hands free to hold onto the ledge of rock.

"What lecture?" Luke asked, trying to struggle to his feet, and finding Vader's foot knocking him back to the ground and holding him still.

Looking down at his son, on whose chest he'd just planted a foot, Vader said, "Don't try to stand up."

Unperturbed, Luke looked straight up at his father from where he lay in the grass, "What lecture?"

Vader took his foot away, and walked to a tree, cutting away a forked branch and bringing it back to Luke, comparing it against his side, making sure he cut it to the right length, "Obi-Wan never got the opportunity to give you his famous 'where-is-your-lightsaber' speech?"

Luke shook his head, "I didn't have a clue how to use my lightsaber. It kind of spent our whole time together safely on my belt. I didn't know Ben for very long," he said sadly.

Vader finished cutting the crutch and lifted Luke to his feet, putting it under his arm. Luke looked up at him, and, trying to take his mind off the death of his mentor, he asked again, "Where's your lightsaber?"

"I threw it at the thing that grabbed you," Vader answered, motioning to Luke to try walking.

Taking a shuddering step, Luke laughed, "You did? Do lightsabers even work underwater?"

Vader clipped Luke's saber onto his belt, "Some do."

"Did yours?"

"No."

Luke laughed again, glad that his father was so willing to engage in conversation. His leg really did hurt quite a lot, and it was good to have someone to talk to so as to distract him. He struggled to take another step back in the direction they'd come, and stumbled. Immediately, Vader was helping him back up, walking alongside him.

"Father," Luke said at last, once he'd managed to stumble up the first stretch of hills, and was starting to improve with his crutches, "Will you tell me something about when you were a Jedi?"

"I'm not a storyteller," Vader answered.

Luke found himself a patch of ground that looked conveniently mushy and stabbed his crutch into it, swinging forward on it, glad that the ground underneath the muddy grip had held up, "I know," he said, "I don't mind."

Vader's breather made a strange sound that must have been a sigh. Luke's next muddy grip slid out from under the crutch, and his father propped him upright again.

"Come on," Luke begged, "Tell me about one of the times Ben gave you the lecture about your lightsaber."

He had expected to be denied, possibly told that that was the story his father was least likely to tell him, but he sensed instead that Vader had smiled.

Sensing hope, Luke asked, "How many times did you get that lecture?"

Vader waved a hand, "Uncountable," he answered vaguely, "Those stories are nothing," he said, and Luke felt himself deflate a little bit. The explanation of one single such event would have made an interesting story, through which he might have been able to see Anakin. However, he sensed his father was still smiling, "Why don't I tell you about the one time I got to turn it on him?"

"Yeah!" Luke said enthusiastically, jabbing his crutch into the ground too far, and having to pause and struggle to get it back out.

Vader grabbed the crutch in one hand and easily pulled it free, "We were aboard General Grevious's ship," he started.

"Who's General Grevious?"

"He was the commander of the Separatist droid army," Vader answered, "And he had trapped us aboard his ship."

Luke felt his eyes growing wide, "What did you do?"

Despite his assertions to the contrary, Vader's enthusiasm made him a very good story teller, dragging Luke's full attention in. Perhaps, Luke thought, he was so enthused because Luke had asked. Had Vader had a lack of people asking for his stories?

"We tried a number of things," Vader told him, "We nearly got away, we even managed to kill Dooku."

"Dooku?"

"My Master's previous apprentice," Vader said, seeming eager to get on with the story.

"_You_ killed a _Sith?_" Luke demanded.

"You think me incapable?"

"No, it's just… you _are_ a Sith."

"Sith are always killing one another. I aim to kill at least one more in my time," Vader answered, "Palpatine."

"Really?" Luke asked, but Vader glared down at him, "Sorry, the story first."

"We'd killed Dooku," Vader said, "We were on our way back to the hangers to get away, but we were captured by magna droids."

"What droids?"

"Jedi killers."

Luke shivered, "Why doesn't the Empire make those?"

Vader gave a harsh laugh, "Why would they have to? They have me. Of course," he said, resolutely returning to his story, "One of them took my lightsaber. So, of course, Master Kenobi took the opportunity to give me his usual lecture."

"Uh-huh?"

"But do you know what he hadn't noticed?"

"What?"

"He hadn't realized that I might notice that another one of the droids had _his_ lightsaber," Vader said with great relish.

"You mean he was okay with giving you a lecture over something he had done too?" Luke asked incredulously.

"Oh, frequently," Vader said, not sounding even slightly angry, "But that time he lectured me about the only thing he ever managed to lecture me about enough that I _remembered it_."

"Word for word?" Luke asked.

"Word for word," his father agreed, "I quoted the whole thing right back at him."

Luke laughed, "That's awesome," he said happily. It _was_ awesome. After all, his father was speaking to him casually, and he had just submitted to telling Luke a story, something the intimidating man had never seemed like the type to do. Luke had forgotten the pain in his leg, although he'd managed to succeed in not putting it down and reminding himself in the most painful way.

Luke was beginning to wonder about asking for another story when the Imperials' ships, which had remained behind, came into view. He began hobbling more quickly, and his father stayed close, steadying him. Vader steered him towards a shuttle, and once aboard, into a lounge, where Luke thrust down his crutch and dropped onto a couch. Vader gathered the stick again, leaning it against Luke's good leg.

"You may wish to reach it easily," he said simply, sitting down beside Luke.

"What's going to happen to me now?" Luke asked, pulling up his pant leg and looking in disgust at the torn skin.

"You will receive medical attention," Vader said, covering Luke's leg again, "After that, you will return to my castle with me."

The words were not a request, but somehow, Luke was not bothered, "Alright. What then?"

Vader shook his head, "I don't know. We'll have to keep you from the emperor."

"Obviously."

"The important thing is that you will be safe," Vader told him.

"I guess," Luke said, "I'd just like to know how you're going to manage that."

Vader looked at him, and Luke sensed a more gentle emotion from him, if one that Luke could not name exactly. Luke smiled at him, hoping that he would continue speaking, but he didn't. He sighed, looking down at his torn leg again. It wasn't ideal that he be in such a condition when he met his father, but it had certainly seemed to give him some kind of leverage, considering how… not exactly warm, but not cold either, Vader was being.

The transport landed with a slight bump, and Vader helped Luke to his feet once more, and showed him to the foot of the landing ramp before allowing him to be taken by a med droid pushing a stretcher. Luke hopped up onto it, sitting with his legs hanging off of it, despite the droid's protests, and Vader followed beside him.

Vader remained with his son, continuing straight in to the operation room, apparently deaf to any complaints voiced by medics, and stayed with him as Luke was injected with a general anesthetic, and slowly dozed off.


End file.
